WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s offer to slow the growth of Social Security benefits would force fellow Democrats in Congress to abandon promises to shield the massive retirement and disability program from cuts as part of negotiations to avoid the year-end fiscal cliff.

Both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., pledged not to touch Social Security as part of deficit reduction talks. Now that Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, have agreed to a new measure of inflation that would reduce annual cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs, for Social Security and other government programs, Democrats are reluctant to call it a deal-breaker.

As Obama and Boehner continued to haggle over how much to raise taxes and cut spending, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney called the new inflation measure a technical adjustment designed to make inflation estimates more accurate, and he emphasized it’s Republicans who want it. More…

UBS TO PAY $1.5 BILLION OVER RATE-RIGGING SCANDAL

WS – Speaking of rigging…

GENEVA (AP) — Switzerland’s UBS AG agreed Wednesday to pay some $1.5 billion in fines to international regulators following a probe into the rigging of a key global interest rate.

In admitting to fraud, Switzerland’s largest bank became the second bank, after Britain’s Barclays PLC, to settle over the rate-rigging scandal. The fine, which will be paid to authorities in the U.S., Britain and Switzerland, also comes just over a week after HSBC PLC agreed to pay nearly $2 billion for alleged money laundering.

The settlement caps a tough year for UBS and the reputation of the global banking industry. As well as being ensnared in the industry-wide investigation into alleged manipulations of the benchmark LIBOR interest rate, short for London interbank offered rate, UBS has seen its reputation suffer in a London trial into a multibillion dollar trading scandal and ongoing tax evasion probes. More…

Today is just yesterdays leftovers from tomorrows banquet!

He’d stick his privileged prick into a peanut butter sandwich if it was fresh, young and creamy.

Court upholds Strauss-Kahn baby pimping inquiry in France

WS – It’s not about justice. – It’s about price. See story above…

(Reuters) – A French court on Wednesday rejected a request by former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn to drop a sex offence inquiry in which he risks standing trial on pimping charges, his lawyers said.

The ruling was given just over a week after Strauss-Kahn settled a separate civil case in New York with a hotel maid who accused him of attempted rape in May 2011, ending his French presidential hopes and career at the International Monetary Fund.

While the New York settlement brought his U.S. legal woes to an end, the latest decision by the court in Douai in northern France means he remains under the legal spotlight at home.

“Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s defense team is certain that he will ultimately be cleared of these absurd accusations of pimping,” lawyer Henri Leclerc said in a statement, adding that he planned to appeal to France’s supreme court. More…

Michigan appoints financial review team for Detroit

Five persons needed to write this story. And a story it is.

This is about firing elected officials and Corporations running cities.

All the above persons are paid corporate toadies. And they are to be shunned and shamed by journalist, bloggers and the general public.

(Reuters) – Michigan Governor Rick Snyder on Tuesday appointed a financial review team for Detroit, the latest development in a process that could lead the city to file for biggest-ever U.S. municipal bankruptcy.

“Given the financial crisis that continues to grip the City of Detroit, we must move quickly to ensure city residents have continued access to essential services they expect and deserve” Snyder said in a statement.

Frustrated by the slow pace of fiscal reforms and worried by Detroit’s long-term outlook, state official earlier this month launched a state review.

Last week, the first part of the process – a preliminary review of Detroit’s cash-strapped finances – was completed in just four days and concluded in a report that the city had “a serious financial problem.”

The report said that “due to financial reporting problems, city projections change from month to month making it difficult to make informed decisions regarding its fiscal health.” More…

Outrage in India over Delhi bus gang rape
Police clash with protesters in New Delhi as gang rape of a woman on a bus triggers nationwide outrage.

Indian riot police have fired a water cannon at demonstrators in New Delhi, after protests against a gang rape in the capital turned violent.

During the protest screened live on television, police could be seen hosing down demonstrators after a group of them tried to tear down steel barricades outside the official residence of New Delhi’s Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

Clashes erupted between protesters and police at the demonstration, one of a series being held in the capital and across the country, including Ahmedabad and Patna, following Sunday night’s attack on a bus.

Police say six men raped the 23-year-old medical student, and beat her and her companion with iron rods before throwing them off the bus in New Delhi.

The woman is in a critical condition in hospital and doctors say she has severe internal injuries.

Delhi police chief Neeraj Kumar said four men had been arrested and a search was underway for the two other men.

Call for equal rights

One young woman, who described herself as a student at Delhi University, said there had to be a change of attitude among the authorities, who, she said, tried to pin the blame for sex attacks on victims. More…

Oh, some little bunnies will pay for this.

Discovery cancels reality show ‘American Guns,’ drops Nugent

WS – Yes Johnny, sometimes a turd is more than a turd.

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 18 (UPI) — Discovery Channel says it has not renewed “American Guns,” won’t air reruns from its past two seasons and will no longer feature gun advocate Ted Nugent.

“American Guns” wrapped its second season Sept. 5. The ratings hit reality show is about a family who runs a successful gun shop in Colorado.

“‘American Guns’ concluded earlier this year,” the network said in a statement. “Discovery Channel chose not to renew the series and has no plans to air repeats of the show.”

E! News said the network did not say whether the decision to cancel the show was directly connected to last week’s mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

The Raw Story website reported Tuesday a Discovery Channel representative confirmed Nugent will not be featured in future programs. The representative, who did not want to go on record, said the heavy metal guitarist’s show — “Ted Nugent’s Gun Country” — attracted only about 864,000 viewers when it was televised in October.More…

Outsourcing injustice in apparel

WS – This is soooo… yesterdays news. Walmart is having a fire a sale on today, in the clothing section. Let’s look forward not behind. Works for Obama.

When lives are sacrificed, the social burden and hidden costs of making cheap clothes skyrockets.
As American shoppers stormed retail stores for Holiday deals, Bangladesh experienced a much bleaker Black Friday when 112 garment workers lost their lives in a fire at Tazreen Fashions Ltd. The tragedy in Bangladesh’s industrial district occurred when fire erupted behind the factory’s locked doors, an eerie parallel to the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, which claimed the lives of 100 girls in New York City’s garment district in 1911.

The fire at Tazreen factory, an unauthorised sub-contracted supplier to Walmart and other global retail brands, is a reminder that when it comes to human rights and workers’ rights, we haven’t come as far as we might think. As citizens, we expect labour laws to protect us, but as consumers, we are often oblivious to the conditions of those labouring to make the goods that we consume, especially those made in the developing world. In many ways, Americans have succeeded in ridding our economic system of injustice. In others, we have merely outsourced it.

It’s hard to believe, but 100 years ago, conditions for domestic apparel workers in America were similar to those in today’s third-world sweatshops. Consider 17-year-old New York factory worker Katie Weiner. Like other immigrant girls, Katie worked in a factory that made the shirtwaist, an all-occasion blouse worn with an ankle-length skirt.

The booming ready-to-wear industry made the stylish shirtwaist affordable to almost everyone, but with hidden social costs. A typical shirtwaist maker worked twelve hours a day, seven days a week, and earned about $6 per week. She was often required to use her own needles, thread, irons and occasionally her own sewing machine. A young worker described one factory as, “unsanitary – that’s the word that is generally used, but there ought to be a worse one used”. More…

Police called to gas-related disturbance
SPARTANBURG, S.C., Dec. 18 (UPI) — Authorities in South Carolina said they were called to a home on a report of a disturbance caused by bad flatulence and vanilla-scented Lysol.

The Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office report said Shannon Manatis, 41, told deputies the incident began Monday afternoon when her husband, Michael Manatis, 46, passed gas that smelled “bad enough to cause her to almost puke,” The Smoking Gun website reported Tuesday.

The woman said she sprayed vanilla-scented Lysol in the “area” of her husband, but Michael Manatis said his wife “sprayed the Lysol in his eyes.” More…